Eat, Drink and Be Merry

SITS Conference

March 6 – 7, 2003

“The great use of time is to spend it for something that outlasts it.” (William James 1842 – 1910)

Eat, Drink and Be MerrySeven Passages Advocating Joy:

Eccl. 2:24a Eccl. 3:12a Eccl. 3:22a Eccl. 5:18 Eccl.8:15a Eccl. 9:7-9 Eccl. 11:7 – 12:1a

Eat, Drink and Be MerryTheme expressed with increasing

emphasis and soberness: Eccl. 2:24a “There is nothing better for

man to do than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.”

Eat, Drink and Be MerryTheme expressed with increasing

emphasis and soberness: Eccl. 3:12 “So I realized (know) that there

is no better thing for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live.”

Eccl. 3:22a “So I understood that there is no better thing than that a man should be happy in his work.”

Eat, Drink and Be MerryTheme expressed with increasing

emphasis and soberness: Eccl. 5:18 “Take note of what I have

discovered: it is good and right to eat and drink and find enjoyment in one’s toil.”

Eat, Drink and Be MerryTheme expressed with increasing

emphasis and soberness:

Note that a decision has been made.

Eccl. 8:15 “So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry;”

Eat, Drink and Be MerryTheme expressed with increasing

emphasis and soberness:

Note the imperatives, “go”, “live” Eccl. 9:7a, 8a, 9a “Go, eat your bread with

joy…, drink your wine with a cheerful heart…, Always be dressed in white…, Enjoy life with your wife.”

Eat, Drink and Be MerryTheme expressed with increasing

emphasis and soberness:

Note the imperative and personal address Eccl.11:9,10, 12:1“Be happy, young man,

in the time of your youth, and let your heart be cheerful while your youth lasts…; follow the promptings of your heart…Banish worry…; cast off trouble…Remember your Creator.”

What to make of these texts?

           “These seven texts are clearly more than mere marginal comments or asides. They punctuate the whole book…they increase steadily in emphasis as the book proceeds; and the last, the most elaborate of them all, directly addressed to the reader, introduces and dominates the concluding section of the book in which Qoheleth presents his final thoughts on how life should be lived and why.” (Whybray, 88)

Text and ContextContexts give reasons for advice:

Predominant reason: it is a gift from God

(2:26; 3:13; 5:18 – 19; 8:15) Other reasons:

Accept what cannot be changed (3:14) We can’t know the future (3:11, 22b, 8:14) Life is short (5:17, 9:9; 11:9; 12:1)

Eccl. 2:24 – 26 in context In 2:22-23 we are told why: “it is precisely

because he tried so hard and relied on his own efforts that in the end all he has achieved is worry and strain.”

2:24 eat and drink and find enjoyment, from the hand of God

Eccl. 3: 1 - 15

Since man cannot understand “the work which God has done” (v 11), of what profit to the worker is his toil (v 9)? Once more “the man who accepts what God gives finds happiness…precisely because he is ignorant of what the future holds, man can and should recognize and make full use of what opportunities for joy God gives him in the here and now.” (Whybray, 90)

Eccl. 3:16 - 22

Life is not always fair (cf. Psa. 73)

Since we are all going to die and be judged, there is “nothing better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot.”

Eccl. 5:10 - 19 Wealth does not satisfy (v.10).

God not only gives the riches and wealth, to the wise, he enables them to enjoy the fruit of that labor. Sad indeed to be given riches from God, yet due to improper attitudes toward Him and them, or the “time and chance” of poor health, one is unable to “enjoy” (see the good) that can be done with them.

Eccl. 8:10 - 15 Apparent inequities of life again addressed

All of this may have a depressing effect upon the righteous and lead them to the fatalistic viewpoint that life is not fair (14). In a sense they are right, when viewed “under the sun” life is not always fair. So what is a person to do? The Preacher commends enjoyment, “because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.”

Eccl. 9:1 - 10 Since everyone is going to die and we do not know how

things will work out for us during life under the sun men often seek one of two faulty choices:

Either they embark upon “an evil life because there seems to be nothing to restrain them, or they fall prey to the madness of a frantic attempt to achieve something lasting by their own efforts.” (Whybray, 91)

Eccl. 11:7 – 12:7 “…the advice to enjoy life comes at the beginning

of the final section of the book and is followed by the famous description of old age culminating in death, which is expressed in a series of subordinate clauses severally introduced by ‘before, until’, which are dependent on the main imperative clause, ‘Remember your Creator in the days of your youth’.”

Seven Problems of Life:Vanity of:

pleasure and power (1:12-2:26) ignorance of the future (3:1-15) injustice in the world (3:16 – 22) pursuit of wealth (5:10 – 19) unpunished wickedness (8:10- 15) all men die regardless of conduct (9:1-10) brevity of life (11:7 – 12:7)

SummaryThe Preacher “not only did not deny the existence of these ‘vanities’: he emphasized them so strongly that he has been supposed to be a teacher of unrelieved pessimism. But in spite of them, and even from them he was able, as we have seen, to provide answers and to make recommendations which…transcend the evils which the Creator has inscrutably allowed to

exist in the world.” (Whybray, 92)

Objections to this view “So I hated life” (2:17) “Wish I had never been born” (6:3 - 5) “Wish I were dead” (4:2 – 3)

Job wished the same (Job 3) Jeremiah felt the same (Jer. 20:14 – 18) “But for him who is joined to all the living

there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion” (Eccl. 9:4).

Conclusion to the joyful life

“The conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, for in this the whole of man’s existence is summed up. Because God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil” (12:13-14).

Conclusion to the joyful life

“All of our life is encompassed by the great plan of God. The child of God has a world view from God. He knows what life is all about. He does not understand everything about life, but he knows where he comes from and where he is going. He knows that life has a purpose, and that the backdrop of life is the divine plan…To him there is a goal for which he strives, an end for which he longs: to be with God eternally, and to share life with Him forever” (Waldron, 212).